Women entrepreneur in the business
press:
not enough visibility!
Annie CORNET, Full professor
Valérie DUBOIS, Researcher
Valérie DUBOIS, Researcher
EGiD, Diversity and Gender in
EGiD, Diversity and Gender in
Management
Research questions
• What is the visibility of women
entrepreneurs in French Belgian
business media, especially in “business
heading”, presented as a personality of
the economic sphere?
• What is the content of these articles?
• Is it different from those about men?
Literature Review
• Few studies on the image of women in
the media:
– Image of women in advertising
(ARPP-Pub, 2013)
– Image of women in politics
(Sourd, 2005).
• Only a few studies on the image of
women entrepreneur and of executive
women in business media and on their
visibility (
Radu & Redien-Collot, 2008,Visibility of business
women in media
• The Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA)
shows the underrepresentation of women in
debate and news shows:
• 18% of experts,
• 23,21% of representatives
• 15,6% of people interviewed during
newscasts
• Rea (
CSA, 2011
, p.184) argues that “media
works through elitist cooperation. People we
know are the ones we pick”.
Women in Politics in
media
• Women’s body, style and family are frequently more mentioned than their skills (Sourd, 2005).
• They are also often portrayed as dominant women (The Huffington Post, janvier 2014).
• They are portrayed in their roles of wife and mother to show how they manage these roles linked with their professional life. Sometimes the article shows the choice they made like the ones who decided not to have children to be a leader in the economic sphere. • In politics, “the daughter of…” or “the protected” are
also used, as if women’s position was decided according to men.
Sample : French Belgian
Economic Journals
• Weekly:
- L’Echo
• Weekly:
- Trends tendances
• Monthly:
- Union et Actions, UCM
- Forward (FEB)
Too difficult to analyse all articles which
speak about women: multiple and
heterogeneous pieces of information
Focus on some recurrent articles
(business headings) for an systematic
analysis of the presence and visibility
of women in these articles
(one year – 2012) / first study (2006)
Presentation of the
« business headings »
• In the Trends tendances:
– “Bizz: Starter” presents, every week in a page, a start-up and the people who founded it
– “People” presents, every week in a page, a personality of the economic sphere
– “Le réseau de…” (the network of …”) is
published every two weeks and relates, as its name indicates, the network of a personality of the
economic and/or political sphere
– ”Portrait” is also published every two weeks and describes in two pages a top manager
– “Parcours” draws each week the portray of three businessmen and/or businesswomen
• In L’Echo:
– “Les décideurs” presents one or two people active in the economic sphere each day
• In the Forward (journal of the FEB):
– “People” presents, in a few pages, two personalities of the economic sphere
• In the CCI mag (Liège – Verviers – Namur / Brabant
wallon – Hainaut – Wallonie Picardie)
– “L’invité du mois” presents, in a few pages, a personality of the economic sphere of the regions of Liège, Verviers and Namur.
• In Union & Actions (UCM):
– “Portrait” presents in each publication a entrepreneur or an independent worker.
•
749 articles (439 in 2006)
•
13% women (15% in 2006)
•
87% men (85 % in 2006)
Results
•
In Wallonia (French part of Belgium):
•
33% women in self-employement
(INASTI)
•
34% in senior management position
(OCDE)
Content analysis
• People in the article : Men / Women / sometimes both • Gender of the journalist
• Length of the article
• Editorial style (Interview – Portray – Reportage) • Photography
• Information about the person:
• Age / Studies / Work experiences / Function as presented in the article: entrepreneur /
administrator / manager / political man or woman / other
Data Collection
• Information on the industry:
• Name / Sector / Revenues / Number of employees • Thematic analysis:
• Women in Male-Dominated Industries • Glass ceiling
Women’s profiles
(N=94)
• Entrepreneur (27 % - 26/94)
• Administrator / president / CEO ( 13% - 13/94) • Manager / chief officer / director (27% - 26/94) • Political woman (12% - 12/94)
• Others such as journalist (0,02% - 2/94) / scientist (0,01% - 1/94 )/ writer (0,01%-1/94)
• Two women cited twice:
– Carine Doutrelepont (CEO- Belgacom Group) – Anne Marie Heller (Defimedia)
No place for women in some
business media !
N.S. – O,O7
2012 (2006)
Men Women Total
Trends tendances 81 (85) % (=253) 19 (15) % (=61) 100 % (=314) L’Echo 92 (81) % (=345) 8 (19) % (=32) 100 % (=377) CCI – Hainaut 100 (83) % (=10) 0 (17) % (=0) 100 % (=10) CCI – Liège 92% (=11) 8% (=1) 100 % (=12) Forward 1000 (87) % (=11) 0 (14) % (=0) 100 % (=11) Union&Actions (Ambassadrice et 100 (74)% (=25) 0 (26)% (=0)) 100 % (=25)
Per article with a single person
(Sept 2005 – June 2006)
N.S. – O,O69 Men Women Total
Bizz starter Trends Tendances 76% (=56) 24% (=18) 100% (=74) People Trends Tendances 88 % (=51) 12% (=7) 100% (=58) Le réseau de … Trends Tendances 95 % (=20) 5% (=1) 100% (=21) Portrait Trends Tendances 90 % (=18) 10% (=2) 100% (=20) Parcours Trends Tendances 77 % (=108) 23% (=33) 100% (=141)
N.S. – O,O69 Men Women Total Les décideurs L’Echo 92% (=345) 8% (=32) 100% (=377) L’invité du mois CCI – Hainaut 100% (=10) 0% (=6) 100% (=0) L’invité du mois CCI – Liège 92% (=11) 8% (=1) 100% (=12) People Forward (FEB) 100% (=11) 0% (=0) 100% (=11) Portrait 100% (=25) 0% (=0) 100% (=25)
Some positive actions
• Trends tendances: Special Trends Women
Awards linked with one special issue on
women.
• Unions & Actions (2 special issues):
– Ambassador women (Europe)
– Mentor (Project Diane / women
entrepreneurship)
• Prices and nominations
– Women who receive the price GPWE (one
category “women entrepreneur”)
Sex of people in the
address Book
N.S. – O,O69 Men Women Total
Person who gives his/her
address book 95 % (=20) (=1)5 % 100 % (=21)
Political sphere 62 % 38 %
(id.) 100 % Circle of friends, family, mentor 83 % 17%
(id.)
100 %
Business world 90 % 10 % 100 %
Cultural sphere or media 91% 9 % 100 %
Academic sphere 95 5%
(2%)
Gender of
journalists
• More men journalists (61 = 65%) than women
(33 = 35%)
• Women are authors of a greater number of
articles
– 413 articles, 6.6 by men
– 312 articles, 9.4 by women
• Women journalists write twice as many
articles dedicated to women (17%) than men
journalists (10%).
Mention of the look
• As often for women and for men: “to speak about the look is the way to make this portrait more human!”
• For men, their look is more often associated to the idea of power: – « Ce «géant» de deux mètres, […]. » (This two-meter ‘giant’)
(Luiz Fernando Edmond, L’Echo du 25 janvier 2012).
– « Grand, Lars Olofsson impressionne par sa carrure et un
indéniable charisme. » (Big, Lars Olofsson impresses through
its stature and its unquestionable charisma) (Lars Olofsson,
L’Echo du 25 mai 2012).
– « Bref, Nicolay, c’est un réel appétit d’ogre, au sens propre –
l'homme affiche 1,95m pour 120 kg – comme au sens
figuré. » (In short, Nicolay eats like a horse, literally – the man
is 1.95m tall for 120 kg – and figuratively) (Frédéric Nicolay,
Personnality
• A great number of traits have been attributed to the subjects, men and women:
– Optimism, enthusiasm, – Ambition
– Perseverance, tenacity, hard-working.
– Importance accorded to human relations: interest for humans, human contact and human relations,
capacity to communicate, to discuss and to listen, empathy, openness of mind, respect of the others, solidarity, mutual aid, etc.
Specific for women
•A strong personality, women with a
strong character
•The dynamism
•The energy
Family
• Women (12%) mention slightly more the fact to
be married than men (9%).
• Some men highlight the importance that their
family and more particularly their wife has in
the success of their professional life.
• Women mention their children (33%) twice as
much as men (16%).
• When women talk about their children, they
refer to time organisation. Time management is
felt to be dealt with as efficiently as the others.
•The time spent with the family is, however,
also perceived as important by men and is a
factor that influences the choice of some
Picture of women in a
male sector
• “Extraordinary” women
• Clients and business partners to
convince
• To be a woman as an asset (not
like the others)!
Women
CEO and top
management
• A discourse linked with the pressure to include
women into the top management and CEOs.
• Women presented in these articles are often
linked as having beneficiated from this
movement.
• In these articles, it is often mentioned that
these women are “the first women” to have
such a function.
Conclusion
•
Underrepresentation of women in business media
•
Reasons:
–
Individual
• Choice of entrepreneur women / CEO (“they don’t want to accept an interview” “they don’t want toto be view as special”)
• Stereotypes, representations, prejudices of journalists and redaction committees
–
Organisational
• Editorial policy (ex: only firm with high economic growth)
• Network (male cooptation)
